Computer requirements

As a major part of your education in dental school, many aspects will be provided to you through some form of technology. The VCU School of Dentistry provides online instruction and testing as well as secure electronic health record and clinical system access via computers. To provide a stable and reliable platform for academic and clinical operations, the School of Dentistry has mandatory, standardized the computer requirements for students.

Students entering the School of Dentistry in the dental and dental hygiene programs will be able to purchase a specially-configured Dell Ultrabook laptop. This laptop will be preloaded with standard software used at the School of Dentistry and compatible with all of our educational technologies and electronic clinical processes.

Dell Latitude 7440 Ultrabook configuration

14” HD touch-sensitive screen

Windows 8 Pro with touch Metro interface

HD fixed focus front side camera

8 GB ram

256 GB solid state drive

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth

3 or 4 cell battery

Mobile Intel HM87 chipset

i3, i5 or i7 processor

Dimensions: 13.27” x 0.83” x 9.1”

Weight: 3.5 lbs.

No internal optical drive. VCU students have 30 GB of cloud and email storage from Google.

Software bundle

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013

Sophos Anti-virus

Credant disk encryption

Juniper Pulse VPN client

Financial aid for computers

Wireless network and off-campus access

There is free wireless Internet access available throughout the School of Dentistry, VCU residence halls and most areas throughout the VCU campus. Most new computers are equipped with a wireless network card. Visit the VCU Technology Services website for more information.

If you plan to access the VCU network from off campus, such as in your home or apartment, you will need two things: a network card or modem and an account with an Internet Service Provider that services your area.